Are home-grown crops at risk of cyclospora infection?

[someone_random]

Basically due to CDC cuts there's this parasite going around that gives you a nasty case of diarrhea. It's spreading because of irrigation water containing the parasite. I'm growing potatoes using well water right now, and I planned on gifting some of them to someone. Would doing this be irresponsible with this going around? Is there a way I can treat the potatoes, or that they can cook them, that can reduce the chance of them getting infected? I would really not like to gift them a month of diarrhea :v

 

[Meadowlark]

You aren't using irrigation water, right? Using well water, you have nothing to worry about (assuming you have tested it and it is not contaminated).

Potatoes aren't on the list in your reference. Cyclospora contamination comes from feces‑contaminated water or soil, not from the potatoes themselves. Experts say your home-grown veggies have far less risk than store bought veggies.

.. Would doing this be irresponsible with this going around?

Absolutely not.

Is there a way I can treat the potatoes, or that they can cook them, that can reduce the chance of them getting infected?

According to the CDC routine chemical disinfection or sanitization of food or water is unlikely to kill Cyclospora.

...I would really not like to gift them a month of diarrhea :v

I don't believe you have any reason for concern.

 

[someone_random]

does it spread through animal feces or just human?

 

[Meadowlark]

does it spread through animal feces or just human?

Just human...

• Source: Human feces only. Cyclospora is a human parasite; animals are not known to carry or transmit it.
• Transmission route: Fecal‑oral — people ingest food or water contaminated with human feces containing Cyclospora.

 

[Meadowlark]

By the way, you can give me all the potatoes you have extra

 

[someone_random]

Unfortunately you're not the one I'm trying to impress with them lol

 

[DirtMechanic]

I have a morbid curiosity about communicable disease. I wanted to know if Montezuma's Revenge could be more narrowly defined to one or a few agents like cyclospora.

MR is a broad term relative to actual causes, and multiple parasites including cyclospora seem to make up a roughly 10% membership. Being a little disappointed with such a low showing I searched for the idea of a "reservoir" of cyclospora in North America and got a hit.

Here was the feedback from Claude:

ME: Are there cyclospora reservoirs in north america or did it come on the veg from peru?

CAI: Both, and the answer has shifted meaningfully in the last decade.
Cyclospora cayetanensis has no known animal reservoir — it appears to be human-specific. That matters because the oocysts are shed unsporulated and need days to weeks in the environment (warm, moist soil or water) before they're infectious. So there's no person-to-person spread and no wildlife or livestock reservoir cycling it. The "reservoir" is really infected people plus contaminated water and soil that gets onto produce.
For years the US assumption was that every case was imported — Guatemalan raspberries in the mid-90s, Mexican cilantro, Peruvian and other Latin American produce. That broke down starting around 2013 and definitively by 2018, when large outbreaks traced to domestically grown produce (Midwest-grown lettuce in the McDonald's salad outbreak, US vegetable trays, and later Wendy's salads). CDC now reports thousands of domestically acquired cases each year with sharp May-through-August seasonality, concentrated in Texas and the Midwest/Northeast.
Whether that means the parasite is environmentally established in North America or just gets reintroduced each season via infected agricultural workers and contaminated irrigation water is still genuinely unresolved. The seasonality argues for something cycling locally in warm months, but the human-only reservoir means it has to be maintained by ongoing human shedding, which points back at farm sanitation and water sources rather than a self-sustaining natural reservoir.

End.

Here is your grain of salt!

 

[someone_random]

Does Montezuma's Revenge include screw worm? That's also from South America

 

[Meadowlark]

Short answer No.

Longer AI response:

"No — Montezuma’s Revenge (traveler’s diarrhea) does not include screwworm infestation. They are completely different conditions with unrelated causes.

Montezuma’s Revenge is a colloquial term for acute traveler’s diarrhea, usually caused by ingesting contaminated food or water containing bacteria such as E. coli, viruses, or parasites. It affects the gastrointestinal tract, causing symptoms like diarrhea, cramps, nausea, and sometimes fever."

By the way, outside of Texas folks may not be aware of the New World Screwworm a parasitic fly larva (Cochliomyia hominivorax) that causes myiasis—infestation of open wounds or body openings with larvae that feed on living tissue. It requires a wound or mucous membrane for the female fly to lay eggs.

It is a huge concern here as it should be. The screwworm virtually wiped out the Texas cattle industry in the past. It has been confirmed to be present here and there is an ongoing program of eradication.

The eradication technique is interesting especially to organic gardeners that employ similar measures. It is called the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), where sterile male flies are released into the environment to mate with females, reducing the overall population. I saw a recent report of the huge numbers of SIT currently being released in Texas...can't recall exact numbers but it is huge.

This has the potential to make people forget about cyclospora, MR, etc. as the impacts can be devastating and widespread..

​

 

[dirty hands]

My guess is biosolids are the culprits. You cant kill everything all the time.

 

[Chuck]

Short answer No.

Longer AI response:

"No — Montezuma’s Revenge (traveler’s diarrhea) does not include screwworm infestation. They are completely different conditions with unrelated causes.

Montezuma’s Revenge is a colloquial term for acute traveler’s diarrhea, usually caused by ingesting contaminated food or water containing bacteria such as E. coli, viruses, or parasites. It affects the gastrointestinal tract, causing symptoms like diarrhea, cramps, nausea, and sometimes fever."

By the way, outside of Texas folks may not be aware of the New World Screwworm a parasitic fly larva (Cochliomyia hominivorax) that causes myiasis—infestation of open wounds or body openings with larvae that feed on living tissue. It requires a wound or mucous membrane for the female fly to lay eggs.

It is a huge concern here as it should be. The screwworm virtually wiped out the Texas cattle industry in the past. It has been confirmed to be present here and there is an ongoing program of eradication.

The eradication technique is interesting especially to organic gardeners that employ similar measures. It is called the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), where sterile male flies are released into the environment to mate with females, reducing the overall population. I saw a recent report of the huge numbers of SIT currently being released in Texas...can't recall exact numbers but it is huge.

This has the potential to make people forget about cyclospora, MR, etc. as the impacts can be devastating and widespread..

​

My neighbor down the road just shot a wounded whitetail deer. It had screwworm in its left lower leg and thigh. He called the game warden who called someone else from the state who arrived here asking if we had seen any wounded animals or deer with CWD (Chronic Wasteing Disease). I remember when I was a kid back in the 1950's that my dad had 240 acres outside of Georgetown Texas. We had 25 or 30 head of cattle and we were always kept busy doctoring wounded cattle. Just a small scratch could lead to death. The treatment was to clean out the wound as best as possible and pour this bright purple stuff over the wound. They finally erridicated the screw worm in the mid 60''''''s IIRC. They did it by releasing sterile male screw worm flys. They can do it again but it takes a long time.

 

[Meadowlark]

My neighbor down the road just shot a wounded whitetail deer. It had screwworm in its left lower leg and thigh.

That is the closest case to me I've seen. Probably indicates they are already here in Polk County.

 

[Meadowlark]

Interesting numbers...

Before eradication, annual losses to the U.S. livestock industry were estimated at $5 million to $10 million. In Texas, losses were proportionally higher, with the University of Texas at Austin’s Biodiversity Center estimating $200 million per year in the 1950s — equivalent to about $1.8 billion in 2020 dollars . A 1976 Texas outbreak alone was later estimated to have cost $330 million